Gravity Falls - In Between
by DachaCyn
Summary: 'Nother one-shot. This time for the Corduroys. A lot of people really liked this elsewhere and suggested I shared this here! Heavy father-daughter bonding between Manly Dan and Wendy as she copes with her feelings after breaking up with Robbie. Takes place the day after "Boyz Crazy." Full-view picture and story is available on Tumblr as well as deviantART. View profile for URLs.


As the sun started to set, Gravity Falls had transformed into a most bliss sight. The crystal heart ornament hung dismally from the curtain brackets. Evening light shone brightly through the window, causing the chandelier's prismatic shapes to cast a beautiful array of colors across the bedroom floor.

Wendy lay in her bed in deep thought, locking her hands across her chest. The copper haired girl had been staring at the wooden ceiling for hours. She wanted nothing but to find consolation in the paneling above her, but she knew it was hopeless. It gave her no answer.

The teenager sighed, inadvertently blowing her bangs upwards. Not a soul could find out, but at the same time, she couldn't bare keeping her feelings so bottled up inside. They gnawed at her brain with teeth as strong as a beaver from Scuttlebutt Island. They were so fierce, so gripping, that she couldn't even find the energy to do anything that day.

_UGH, there's just no way!_

The teenager let out a flustered groan, burying her face into a pillow in exasperation. Even in the serenity of her room and the tranquil stature of her bed, she still felt distressed. She couldn't find solace in anything that she normally would. Nothing, not even her stuffed animals, could comfort her right now.

She continued to mope, when her thoughts were interrupted as she heard her name through the cabin room walls. She looked up. Obstructed voices of her family sounded from the living room.

"Now…. ….Boys! Wh…. ….doing…. ….Wendy?!"

Curiosity got the best of her. She clambered to the head of her bed and flattened her ear against the wall. She listened closely as her family bickered.

"I dunno, she's been lazing around in her room _all day_, Dad. I'm not even sure she left for work this morning." Wendy huffed at her brother's remark.

"She never left the cabin?! She didn't touch her dinner either. This isn't like her."

"I don't know. She always keeps to herself anyways, Dad. She's fine."

Her brother's obvious lack of concern got on her fathers' nerves as a muffled grumble sounded from behind the wall. The chat no longer continued.

Wendy quickly became anxious. He never prodded at his daughter's business but the possibility put her at immediate unease. The last thing she needed right now was a Corduroy lecture. She just wanted to be alone.

_Go back to work go back to work go back to work…_

Minutes passed as Wendy tensed up against the wall, but relief washed over her once an enormous tread of feet resonated from the other side of the house. Wendy sighed, sinking back into her bed. He would leave her alone.

Suddenly, the entire cabin shook as one massive stomp could be heard from right down the hall. She winced as heavy footsteps had begun nearing her bedroom door. He was coming.

The teenager growled in frustration. She rolled over to her side in a futile attempt to hide. She refused to meet his eyes once he opened the door.

_C'mon I just wanna be alone..._

Metal clenched aggressively as the doorknob she had her back turned to swiveled to the right. The bedroom door opened with a jerking creak, and her father's presence immediately filled the room.

"Wendy?!"

His low voice sounded from the other side of the room angrily, infuriated at his daughter's lack of communication.

Wendy was too distressed to answer properly. She said nothing, feebly raising a hand up to indicate she had heard him instead.

Daniel stood at the door, taken aback by this abnormal gesture from his daughter. He scratched his beard. Something was wrong.

The copper haired girl braced herself. She had prepared for her father to scold her in a fit of rage.

"Are uh… you alright?"

But she stopped when she heard her father's voice so mellow, so concerned. This was a tone she hadn't heard in years, and a question he had not asked her in a very long time.

The teenager sighed, softly. "I'm fine."

She knew she wasn't, but she didn't have the right words. Something was holding her back.

Daniel stepped into the room. The floorboards creaked under massive soles; the cabin shaking with each step he took. He scratched his rough, red beard and lay a lazy right hand on the back of his neck, contemplating the right words to say.

"Something wrong?"

Wendy curled up in her bed, slowly. "I don't want to to talk about it," she replied sullenly.

Daniel closed the door behind him to insure the boys wouldn't overhear anything. He was cautious not to bang his head on the walls or topple anything over this time.

"I'm not gonna push it," he said, turning to his daughter. "But remember Daddy's here if you need to talk. You know holding something in will only make it worse."

Wendy said nothing. She knew her father would leave her alone if she brushed it off, but this was different. She hesitated, initiating the get-go at last.

"...I guess... I've just had a load on my mind."

The lumberjack had begun fiddling with the trinkets and baubles that decorated the walls, noticing a pocket knife lay sheathed on his daughter's night table. He picked it up to examine it closer. It's blade was worn and unclean of sawdust, likely used to carve out all of those engravings on the walls.

He played with the knife. "...So what's wrong?"

Wendy could no longer bare it. She exploded in frustration, snapping her head up and nearly leaping up from her bed. "UGH, DAD, just... why are boys just _so_.. manipulative and _selfish_?! It's like one after the other, no matter who they are or where they're from, they all just want to get what they want! Thinking only about themselves, and without any regard for how anyone else feels…"

The teenager sat upright in her fit. She lay back down, closing her eyes to face the voiceless ceiling once more.

"..including me."

A tremendous weight seemed to be lifted off of her shoulders as she vented, only for it to come crashing right back down at the sudden realization: talking about her bad experiences with her very proud, extremely short tempered father could lead to nothing short of disaster.

Daniel was startled by this sudden outburst. Wendy was clearly upset. He placed the knife back on the night table and approached the foot of the bed to sit next to his daughter.

"Let me tell you somethin' Wendy."

He twiddled one finger as Wendy continued to look away from him, but she was listening.

"When your mom and I first met…" he started, smiling at the floorboard as if his memories pooled within the wood they walked over, and at the very mention of her mother, Wendy looked up.

"...things were meant to be."

The teenager could see her father's face light up as he revisited old memories. She relished. The subject of her mother was something the both of them found very painful to discuss, but that her father was talking about her right now in such bliss had begun to calm her down. She listened intently.

"I was the Manliest Dan she ever met, and she loved that about me," he spoke in his usual low, proud tone. "Corduroys were proud, strong, and I was no different. I'd only have to flex and she'd be all over me. I mean the lady'd sit on my arms as we walked around town when we got the chance!" He haughtily chuckled.

Wendy frowned, rolling her eyes as she lay on her bed. This wasn't helping. As touchy of a subject her mother was she didn't need to hear her pompous father's boasting right now.

He looked up. "...but that doesn't mean we never fought. That was usually on my account, but I never meant it. It was _might_ that brought us together, but it was the _mind_ that kept us together," the lumberjack went on.

The copper haired girl looked back up at her father as he redeemed himself of his boasts. His tone had changed. This was a side of him she had never heard before. Or at least, not in the longest time.

The lumberjack made an attempt to conjure up the right words. "...Sure, there were a lot of times we'd have our fun, young and in love, but when those butterflies faded away, things only got tougher… Sometimes, manly men do things because they're only looking out for things in their own interest, and some of those men can't be helped. I mean, we aren't smart Wendy," he said.

She stared as he continued, and while she pictured her mother in her mind, she couldn't help but take a walk down memory lane herself.

"What I _can _assure you of is that, for most of them, they don't mean it," he went on, lifting his big hands. "They're just not thinking about it. Only later do they realize they gotta look out for the lady and not just themselves, or else the both of them will get hurt. That usually happens the hard way."

The teenager listened. Her father really was making her feel better when she thought he never could. Not about anything like this.

"A manly man can have the STRENGTH to cut down ten fifty-five foot tall pine trees to build his family a HOUSE with his BARE HANDS," he slammed a fist down on the floorboard, making the bed jump on Wendy's end and she almost touched the ceiling with a whoop.

"...but he isn't manly in the _least_ without the strength of mind to care for anyone. Take that Pines boy for instance, he couldn't even pull the lever of a vending machine, but he's got guts. There will be times where they just weren't thinking about what they've done, especially if they're your friends. They usually regret it, and will want ya to forgive them having learned they were wrong. Know that."

He turned to look at her once more.

"And, of course, being taken advantage of is one thing that should never be forgiven for. But I guess what I'm saying is… sometimes a man will always think about himself, but sometimes he really doesn't mean to."

The teenager was invigorated. Telling him what was wrong really made her feel better.

_He's right… he just wasn't thinking. He's still young after all._

Wendy looked into her father's eyes as he turned and awaited her response. Behind all of that muscle was someone she could really talk to, someone who knew what they were talking about. While she and her father were relatively close, she never realized how broad his perspective of life was. She didn't even need to go into detail for him to know exactly what to say.

The teenager had not even realized how long she was quiet for. Her father had looked down again with worried black eyes. "I'm terrible with things like this, Wen," he said, nervously scratching the back of his head. "Your mom would be a lot better at this. I know it's probably, y'know, hard, having to be around the boys all the time."

He locked his hands together and placed them in his lap as he looked about the room, continuing into deep thought.

_She was._

_But she isn't here now._

The copper haired girl immediately sat up right and scrambled to the side of the bed where her father sat. She stammered, trying to reassure him. "No! Seriously Dad, like, you really helped." She lay a hand on his arm and smiled, looking at him with sincerity. "Thanks."

Daniel's eyes lit up as his daughter reassured him. He beamed, sitting upright. "Sure thing Wen." He nudged her head with his huge palm, messing up the placement of her plush, lumberjack hat. She grinned at this usual gesture of affection, and fixed her hat right away.

"Now I've got to get back to work. Rememb- _OW!_"

He got up with a jolt only for his head to meet the ceiling with a painful _thud_. The cabin shook violently as the curtain hinges fell down to the floor and knocked over the lamp on the dresser.

"Who put that _ROOF_ there?!"

Wendy _roared_ with laughter as her father rubbed his head in pain and frustration. Another mess to pick up after, but the teenager could care less. All that mattered was that he came to her. He was there for her when she needed him most.

She lazed backwards on her bed with one leg crossed over the other as she rested her head on her own shoulder. "_Haha_, good luck with those branches!"

Daniel rubbed his head in pain, but his daughter's laughter chased it away. It was all he ever needed.

He looked at his daughter in memory. There she was, her mother, laughing like she was always did. He smiled, cherishing his memories once more. "Your mom would be mighty proud of her baby girl becoming so strong after all she's gone through, if only she were still around."

An anxious smile spread across Wendy's lips as her father looked at her. She remembered her mother, and as light gleamed through the trees, brightening up the room for the last time that day, her mother seemed to be standing right there, right beside her smiling father.

"_Thanks, Dad."_


End file.
